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Friday, March 19, 2010

St. Patrick's Day !

We had a blast with our St. Patrick's Day and rainbow activities. I wanted to include some of the things we did this week that were not included in the previous post, St. Patrick's Day Activities. I always dress for the season, usually in green for a few weeks. (Admittedly, as a redhead, I tend to wear a lot of green anyway, so I have plenty of green clothing to fill the timespan!) I also wear a lot of crazy hats (and even a bowtie in the pic below).

We sang songs and used our shamrock-on-a-stick prop (not really a puppet or shaker, so what are they?) and the paper plate and toilet paper tube shakers that we made last week.

The children made necklaces (great fine motor practice) to wear from dyed pasta and cut drinking straws.

We had a wonderful scavenger hunt. We put on our thinking caps to solve riddles and complete tasks and had to follow directions along the way. At the end of the hunt, we found a black "pot" (a coffee can wrapped in black construction paper) filled with these little treats to take home. (I have used the Mailbox Skittles poem for years, but couldn't find my copy. I tried to remember it~if not exact, it's pretty close!)

While we were out at recess, the leprechauns paid one final visit. I'm grateful for a dear classroom neighbor for her help. :) The elusive little guys visited the centers, tried various green toys and sprinkled glitter about.

All week in our art center, there were green hats and shamrock diecuts of various sizes. Here is some of the art they produced during center time after discovering these materials.

Here's a cute leprechaun puppet one friend made.

As I wrote in my earlier post, I have shamrocks programmed with letters, numbers and a few with some sight words. I also have a set for size serialization. Some frinds used the letter shamrocks to play a game similar to "Go Fish".

This morning our arrival activity was to arrange Fruit Loops on a workmat to make rainbows. As breakfast arrived, the kids were thrilled to hear that today, in addition to Cheerios, having the Fruit Loops was an option. I was so proud that many of them wanted to make a "healthy choice" and mix the two cereals instead of "loading up on junk". (Wonder where they heard that, wink, wink!)

All in all, we have had a great week! In addition to all this, we have also gone full steam into our Wee World and had an awesome field trip to a local pizza place. I hope to write more about both of these activities this weekend.

About Me

I have been teaching early childhood for about 20 years. I love what I do---it's the best job in the world!!! Where else can you go to work each day and do art, play games, have snack and get hugs regularly AND get paid for it?! I love to share ideas with other teachers and see what they are doing in their classrooms. Teaching is the best profession---we love to share!